Money, money, money... working out what is the best way to deal with our money and the budget has been difficult. Actually spending the money has been easy, as they is so many different things you can buy or have but we have had a certain amount of money and therefore have had to be controlled in what we buy and have.

The Budget

The budget has been the hardest thing to work out as I have spoken to many people and the costs involved have varied greatly and the only published information in The Bradt guide is 4 years out of date. In stating that though we are still working to the budget of US$60 per day. Since statring our travels the budget has not worked like we thought it should so we have changed. We now have 3 budgets worked out from talking to other people. one for the fuel, one for visa and ferries and then our daily budget. Our daily budget is £30 which covers food, accommadation and tourist sites etc. So far this is the best and easiest way to do it for us. We have £2600 for fuel for the trip and another £1100 for all the visa and ferries involved.

Due to the massive drop in the exchange rate between the pound and the dollar we have had to cut back on a few planned activities on the way, as the money we had set aside is no longer worth as much. In stating that though we have had some great advice from another couple who are currently travelling “We're only just accepting that when you travel for a long period of time it's the travel that counts and not the individual activities - otherwise it's a bit like a series of honeymoons, which would set anyone back.”

We have the planned budget and will update information later in regards to whether we are keeping to the budget or not!! Since changing to the 3 different budgets it is woking out great and we actually within budget

Banking

We have opened up a Nationwide bank account and applied for their credit card, as they are the only bank that allows free withdraws aboard without having to pay for a bank account here.

We have also applied for a Mastercard and an American Express credit card, as back up to ensure that we can always obtain funds if required and will be taking our existing bank cards but will only be using them in emergences, if our nationwide do not work due to the £2 for each transaction.

We will be notifying all of our banks and credit cards of our planned trip, to try and reduce the possibility of them blocking our accounts while we are away. Due to how remote at times we will be; we have allowed third party access to our accounts to our parent which means that they can operate/ resolve problems on our.